The present invention relates to a textile item with the ability to modify its appearance by adding, removing or modifying an ornamental design, logo, or insignia and the like. The present invention further provides a way to use adhesive as a means of removably adhering an object onto a porous material, such as a textile, that is subject to varying temperatures and pressures, without the threat of migration of the adhesive into the pores or fibers of the textile. The invention further discloses a new business model that introduces digital technology to the traditional brick and mortar retail business model to gain business efficiencies and improved consumer satisfaction.
The origin of the present invention came about when the inventor approached the largest adhesive companies in the world, including 3M, Tesa, Henkel and numerous others, requesting a pressure sensitive adhesive that would allow a piece of fabric to be removably attached to a fabric based car seat. In all instances, the leading manufacturers of adhesives explained that it is impossible to find an adhesive that would work in the aforementioned application because over time, under the wide range of pressure and temperatures, all currently available adhesives would tend to migrate into the fibers of the fabric and there weren't any known adhesives that would work under such conditions without potentially damaging the vehicles seat. This led the inventor to identify the present invention which solves this problem and delivers a new broader solution to those seeking to removably attach any object onto a textile using adhesive. The inventor discovered that finding an innovative adhesive was not the best solution for the current problem. Instead, the inventor searched for a solution that worked around the shortcomings of adhesive technology to overcome the obstacle at hand.
Textiles are often used in numerous applications and products with two primary purposes, function and design. Whether a textile is used in an article of clothing, protective cover, home furnishing, carrying case, bedding, signage, rug or any of the many other applications using textiles, there is often an aesthetic component to the item that delivers a significant value to the overall textile article. In fact, some textile products are used more for their aesthetic characteristics than their function. As a small example, T shirts can be purchased plain or with a decorative ornament that helps add to the aesthetic value of the shirt. The fact that a majority of T shirts are sold with a decorative design permanently affixed to the item demonstrates the significant value that consumers place on the aesthetic aspect of most textiles.
The aesthetic appeal of a textile can be improved simply by adding color to the textile or adding a wide range of simple or complex designs. Ornamental designs are generally added to a textile at the point of manufacture in a number of ways including embossing, dyeing, sewing, sublimation, screen printing, embroidery and other means. These methods are not intended to allow a design to be removed. Instead, the designs become permanent fixtures of the textile. Current art does not generally consider the advantages of providing the consumer with the ability to customize the look of their textile product at any given time during the useful life of the item. Thus current art does not make it easy, practical or convenient to remove, add or replace ornamental designs on textiles.
In many cases, the owner of a textile item will appreciate the opportunity to use a textile's design to express themselves with a particular image, photo, emblem or licensed logo that the consumer can relate to as a part of their personality. One of the shortcomings of most textile items is the limited number of designs available at retail points of sale. Most textiles are purchased from retailers with limited shelf space or inventory. In the case, of brick and mortar retailers, there is a finite amount of shelf space that can be allocated to varying available designs. For on line retailers, the limitations of designs is more a function of managing inventory and the ability of only being able to allocate time, attention and marketing dollars to a finite set of designs. These limitations force the consumer to decide between accepting a design that is available from the retailer, which can often be very limiting, or simply choosing not to purchase a textile product with a design on it because none is found that matches their personality or taste.
Also, there has been a tendency for many of the available designs to use licensed logos and designs that add an extra layer of cost that gets passed on to the consumer, further limiting the availability of reasonably priced designs that match the tastes of the consumer. Given the state of the current art, there hasn't been a practical way to offer consumers a generic textile product that allows them to affix their own design. Such an approach would serve both the consumer and the retailer by allowing fewer items to satisfy the varying aesthetic tastes of many without the need of larger quantities of inventory or valuable shelf space.
Retailers and manufacturers do not purposely seek to limit the availability of designs. Instead, retailers and manufacturers find themselves confined by the availability of shelf space and inventory to meet the wide range of designs sought after by the textile consumer. For retailers and manufacturers it is a constant challenge to identify the optimal balance of inventory to maintain for the numerous available designs. Limited brick and mortar retail shelf space requires retailers to be very selective in identifying the designs that will sell best at any given time. Since it is virtually impossible to accurately predict the design preferences of the consumer, retailers and manufacturers are constantly managing varying degrees of over stocking and under stocking the assorted designs that are being marketed. To complicate matters, design popularity changes constantly according to popular trends. The current invention helps to stabilize inventory levels by using a substantially reduced number of inventoried items required to satisfy the wide breadth of design tastes from the masses.
Customization is another sought after feature that has not been made widely available to the textile consumer at a brick and mortar store in the current art and is considered to be more of a custom service as opposed to an option intended for the masses. In addition to the desire to decorate a textile product, many textile product owners would appreciate the opportunity to personalize a decorative insignia that can be applied to a textile article. Instead of a generic insignia offered by a retailer, many consumers of textile products would prefer the ability to create and apply insignia that delivers their own message on their product. The current invention allows a consumer access to virtually an unlimited number of design options available to be applied to a textile in a design area that allows for the attachment and removal of new and exciting designs that are only limited by the imagination of the consumer. Advancements in digital technology, combined with the availability of the internet into most households, provides a new world of creative content that can serve a consumer to pick and choose a design that meets their aesthetic tastes.
As an illustrative example, we refer to vehicle seat covers, T shirts and hats that are well known as being textile products sold with numerous available designs at brick and mortar retail points of sale. Despite the vast range of available designs, retailers and consumers are restricted by the available shelf space that is only able to offer a limited number of designs at any given time. Since current seat covers, t-shirts, hats and other decorated textile products generally restrict their manufacturing to making permanently affixed insignia available to the mass consumer, there is little opportunity for these prospective textile product owners to personalize their own design, which is considered limiting in the current art. Although there are companies that offer varying levels of personalization, including monogramming, these services are generally not a do it yourself project and can be costly. Furthermore, monogramming and other forms of customization are not widely available and often have a shipping cost added to the total cost. The present invention offers the power of the internet and computer technology to deliver the opportunity for a more personalized textile product design at a moderate cost to the consumer, available from their personal computer, as well as other sources.
Until recently, prior art has been limited in the ability of creating decorative ornaments for textiles as a do it yourself project. Advances in technology are moving us closer towards this end. The wider availability of color printers in the home and workplace are making it possible to print vibrant colored designs from a common desktop computer and printer. Progress in commonly available software programs is allowing the novice computer user to be able to create unique and appealing designs easily from a person's personal computer. Adding to the progress in the field is the ability to use the power of the internet to deliver creative art directly to a person's home at minimal cost through a download. The internet also helps individuals to create their own personalized designs. In addition, print media and inks that are better suited for textile decoration have improved and become more widely available. Finally, technological advancements in adhesives have opened the door to allow decorative designs to be affixed in areas where wide temperature and pressure ranges may exist during textile use. The current invention seeks to add to the progression of technology by providing a practical means to capitalize on the aforementioned advancements to allow an ornamental design to be added to a textile material without threatening the material with adhesive migration. Thus, the present invention makes personalization closer to being a do it yourself project with a more robust opportunity for customization of a design destined to be applied onto a textile.
Current art does not provide a practical way for a consumer to be able to add a design to a generically decorated textile item that may not have a design at the time of purchase. For example, a person who purchases a plain T shirt because they could not find a design of their liking, is not able to easily add a design as a do it yourself project. Also, it is not possible to modify, remove or change an ornamental design on a textile item without spending significant time and money, plus risking damage to the item in the process. Adding a design using the present art would require significant time in designing a new insignia and use of sophisticated sewing or printing techniques to apply the design so it looks good on most textile products. An important hindrance to the ease of installation of a new ornamental design is the omission of a designated space on a textile product that can universally hold a removable new design or insignia. Thus the consumer is faced with accepting the designs currently available in the marketplace at any given time and is unable to modify the look of a purchased textile product unless the entire item is replaced, which can be expensive.
Although a textile item may have a longer term life span, the tastes and preferences of a textile item owner may change well before the useful life of the textile item has ended. In this case, if a textile item owner wishes to have a different ornamental design used on their textile product, they must incur the expense of replacing the entire product in order to change its look, even though it may be in perfect working condition. This is considered wasteful and not practical. A better solution provided by the current invention is to provide a means that allows for the easy, quick and convenient changing of an ornamental design on a textile item, without the need of replacing the entire product, thus saving the consumer considerable money. Furthermore, some textile products, such as a seat cover, can be time consuming to install, making it inconvenient to go through the process of re-installation. Thus the current invention can save considerable amounts of time to those wanting to change an ornamental design on a textile numerous times during the products useful life. Also, many textiles are used in expensive products such as furniture, where it may be considered too costly to replace the item just to change the aesthetic look of the product. In this case, the furniture owner would likely keep their furniture, despite their desire for a different look, as a matter of economic practicality.
Current art has provided a number of mechanical means of attaching a removable object on a textile, including hook and loop tape, snaps, buckles, zippers and the like. For many textile applications, these mechanical means may not be practical or desirable because they add bulk, weight and cost to the product. Also, many textile products, such as clothing, seat covers, bedding and others come in contact with a body and its weight applied to the textile. In such a case, a mechanical fastener would likely be considered awkward and painful since it would press against the body when body weight was placed against it.
An alternative to using mechanical fasteners to attach an ornamental design to a textile is adhesive, which eliminates the bulkiness of mechanical fasteners and can be more economical from a production standpoint or as a fastening means itself. Short term usage of pressure sensitive adhesives in controlled temperature and pressure environments has allowed removable signage to be added to a textile surface in the current art. As an example, decals that allow a person to communicate their name are often used as disposable name badges affixed to a person's shirt or article of clothing at events. This type of removable decal is only appropriate for short term usage in a controlled environment and is severely limited in the scope of its use because of the threat of adhesive migrating into the clothing or textile surface of the object it is applied to.
Adhesives have long been used as an effective means of applying an object, such as an ornamental design, onto a non-porous surface where the threat of adhesive migration can be minimized or eliminated. Advances in adhesive technology have introduced dynamic adhesives that allow removable decals to be added to non-porous surfaces facing more challenging environments than ever before, including wider temperature ranges. This has allowed decals to be applied as wall hangings on interior and exterior walls and on vehicles, despite the challenging environments these applications can present, including wide temperature ranges. However, current art has come short of finding a solution that will allow the use of adhesive to removably attach an object onto a porous material such as a textile or others.
The challenge faced by the current art is in finding a way to adhesively attach a removable object, such as a decorative ornament, to a textile item for long term use under varying ranges of temperature and pressure. To varying degrees, adhesives flow depending on the temperature and pressure applied to them and their specific properties. Over time, an adhesive will tend to migrate into the fibers of a textile or porous material, entangling itself into the material. This entanglement reduces the removability of an adhesive from a textile over time as a bond begins to form as a result of the entanglement. This bonding effect can be minor or severe and can cause a multitude of problems, including adhesive detaching itself from the object or a permanent bond developing between the object and textile over time. This has eliminated the ability to effectively use adhesive as a means of adding a removably attachable object onto a textile or other porous material for long term use.
Many textile items are used in wide ranges of temperatures with varying degrees of pressure applied, making the use of adhesives inappropriate for affixing an object, such as an ornamental design or otherwise, to a textile item given the current art. Rugs, bedding, covers, bags, suitcases and seats are just a few examples of textile items known to face pressure and temperature ranges that make use of an adhesive not practical for attachment of an object due to the threat of adhesive migration given the current art. The present invention solves the shortcoming in the current art by providing a designated area to a textile where a non-porous patch is applied to serve as a barrier against adhesive migration between an object and a textile so that the object may be removed and re applied numerous times without causing damage to the textile or object.